Colombia Issues First Tender

With the support of the Inter-American Development Bank and in collaboration with BANCOLDEX Colombia has become the first country in Latin America and the Caribbean to issue energy saving policies under the Energy Savings Insurance Program ESI in benefit of five small and medium-sized enterprises that have invested in energy efficiency and power generation projects.One of these beneficiaries is the Neiva Plaza Hotel in the department of Huila whose project for replacing obsolete boilers with solar thermal heathers had an investment of 122 million Colombian pesos around 40000 USD and is ensured by Mas Centgrados SAS supplier.Another investor is the Villa Martha Hotel insured by supplier Energitel which will install a photovoltaic project of 10kWp capacity in Turbaco department of Bolvar with an investment of 94 million pesos 30000 USD.Both projects are insured by SURA one of the main insurers in Latin America and theyre financed by Banco Davivienda of Colombia through the Energy Saving Bancldex Line for Hotels Clinics and Hospitals with resources from the IDB and the Climate Investment Funds CIF.Three other projects financed with their own resources have been insured by SURA with the energy efficiency and power generation policy Supertiendas Arrieras in Pereira in the Risaralda department 10kWp install capacity a solar farm in Pereira city 9723 MWh of annual generation and a photovoltaic solar system in Bogota which is connected to the grid 11292 kWh of monthly generation.The ESI Program is a regional initiative developed by the IDB in cooperation with the Government of Denmark through the Danish Energy Agency to promote investments in energy efficiency. The insurance covers the damages of not obtaining the estimated energy savings and is one of the Programs tools to mitigate the investments risk which boosts a greater number of companies to invest in more efficient technologies and improve their performance in terms of productivity and environmental care.In the five mentioned cases the ESI Programs tools have been important to build confidence in the projects robustness and to help the financial closure by guaranteeing energy savings.The ESI Program is also being implemented with banks in Brazil Goias Fomento BRDE BANDES Chile Banco Estado El Salvador Bandesal Nicaragua BFP and Peru COFIDE.